Days after letter to Bengal on ‘rising’ violence, govt says no data on crime since 2016

There is no published data on crime rates in any state for 2017-18 and 2019, and published reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) are available only up to 2016, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

This comes days after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sent an advisory to the West Bengal government on June 15 in the wake of agitation by doctors in the state. In it, the MHA had quoted reports available with the ministry to give exact figures of political violence in the state.

In its letter to the state government, the MHA stated that “incidents of political violence in West Bengal increased from 509 in 2016 to 1,035 in 2018. 773 incidents have already occurred in 2019 till date. Correspondingly, the death toll rose from 36 in 2016 to 96 in 2018, while 26 deaths have already taken place in 2019 till date.”

This was the second of three MHA missives to West Bengal on law and order situation in the state since the Lok Sabha election results were announced on May 23. Several killings have been reported in the state, all purportedly political, during and after the Lok Sabha polls.

Reddy’s reply was to Trinamool MP Manas Ranjan Bhunia’s unstarred question whether “different states in the country have been witnessing the increase in number of incidents of murder, attempt to murder, rape, attempt to rape, kidnappings, trafficking of women and children in 2017, 2018 and 2019 till May”.

The minister stated, “The NCRB compiles and publishes information on crimes in its publication ‘Crime in India’. The published reports are available till the year 2016. Published data for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 are not available.”

In its June 15 communication, the Centre had sought a report from the TMC government in Bengal on measures taken to contain political violence and to investigate such incidents of violence to bring the culprits to book. Pointing out the growing number of incidents of election-related and political violence, and casualties over four years from 2016 to 2019, the Home Ministry had stated that “unabated violence over the years is evidently a matter of deep concern”.

It quoted reports received by it to give the figures of political violence in the state.

The June 15 advisory stated, “Continued trend of political violence from 2016 through 2019, as evident from the above figures, is indicative of failure on the part of the law enforcement machinery of the State to maintain rule of law and to inspire a sense of security among the people. Government of India is seriously concerned over the prevalent situation in West Bengal.”